Dreams of Fire
by Inanis Incedeco
Summary: Death closes, but love can flourish even in darkness. A short ficlet collection.


_Author's Note: This was prompted for me: Various viewpoints about your OTP's (F!Hawke/Merrill, F!Amell/Leliana, M!Trevelyan/Josephine). I already finished the other two, and this one is the last one._

 _If you want to prompt me for a story, please feel free to leave a review, send me a PM, or search for greyassassin24 on Tumblr and go to the prompts tab._

Wynne

"You're quite taken with each other, aren't you?" Wynne says in her best mentor voice when Mara comes to talk for the night.

She raises an eyebrow at her mentor questioningly. "You know about Leliana and me?"

Wynne shakes her head, smiling. As if anyone with eyes couldn't tell they were utterly in love with one another. "I've seen the way she looks at you, the familiar way you talk to one another, how you two somehow always manage to find a way to sit next to one another."

She blushes. "We do that, don't we?"

Wynne chuckles. "It's almost too sweet for my tastes, and I'm an old lady who knits blankets."

She shakes her head. "Wynne, if you're trying to discourage us again: Stop. I love her, and she loves me, and I can't leave her."

Wynne sagged her shoulders, and sighed. "You're a Grey Warden, and you have a duty, to us, and to the world. I-"

She holds a hand to silence her mentor. "I know what you're going to say, and you have a point. But Wynne, I need a reason to keep fighting. Whenever I wake up in the morning, feeling half-dead and completely beaten, I turn and feel her asleep next to me, and know that I have to keep fighting. Without her... I'd have nothing." Their eyes met, and Wynne was almost scared of the determination in the azure depths of the Warden's eyes. "You know, I remember there was an incredible wise mentor in the Circle, and she told me that you must live as you think or, sooner or later, you will think as you live."

Then she turns and walks away, and Wynne realizes that the Warden, even though she's not even eighteen yet, knows how the world works better than she does.

Alistair

"Hey Alistair." Mara says when she comes into his Denerim room. "You want to go get some drinks before the world goes to hell?"

The Landsmeet was tomorrow, and both of them were absolutely terrified out of their minds.

"I thought you didn't drink." Alistair's smiles shakily.

"I don't." She acknowledges. "But I think I need one today."

Alistair nods understandingly. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

At the Gnawed Noble Tavern, Mara orders Wine, and Alistair orders Ale.

"So," Alistair smiles. "I saw you and Leliana in the library yesterday."

Mara blushes. She and Leliana had been having a scorching make-out session in the library the previous night.

"You two are cute." Alistair laughs.

"S-sorry." She stammers, clearly embarrassed.

Alistair chuckles. "I just think it's funny." He clasps his fellow Warden on the shoulder. "I'm glad you two are happy. There's been enough death in our lives."

She smiles shyly. "Thank you." She looks down a little. "Hey, listen. If, at the end of all of this we're all still standing, me and Leliana might consider getting married." Mara looks back up and into his eyes. "Do you think that you could walk me down the aisle since my dad's not around anymore?"

He nods. "Of course."

Mara smiles, and gives him a hug. "Now," She says as she pulls back. "Where in the world are our drinks?"

Morrigan

"Mmm, oh, oh yes!" A shriek carries across the camp. "Maker, yes! More, Leli!"

Morrigan groans and turns over in her bedroll. Ever since Mara and Leliana had begun sleeping together, they had moved their tent across the campsite so as not to wake anyone else.

And that put it right next to Morrigan's tent. Where she could hear Every. Last. Detail.

She pulls a pillow over her head. She had come to respect the Warden immensely, to the point of considering the Warden her first friend. Maybe even a sister. Why she wasted so much time with that Chantry Sister, Morrigan would never know.

"Oh please! Leliana!"

"Would you two stop fornicating like animals?!" She shouts angrily at them.

"Sorry Morrigan!" Mara giggles in a tone that very plainly shows she isn't sorry at all. The noises grow quiet, and their tent is filled with giggling and hushed whispers. Morrigan sighs, and pulls the pillow back over her head.

Shale

"I notice the sister has been spending a great deal of time with it."

Leliana turns, and quirks an eyebrow. "With _'it'_?" She asks, clearly confused. "Oh! You mean her. I'm surprised you noticed."

If a golem could laugh, that's what Shale did. "I am made of rock. This does not make me dense."

Leliana giggles. "I suppose not."

A moment passes. "Does the sister not see a problem with serving two masters?"

"Erm." Leliana shakes her head. "I'm going to ignore the serving bit." She thought for a moment of how to put her thoughts into words. "I'll assume you mean the Maker and Mara. I entered the Chantry as a lay sister, but I never took vows to prohibit myself from... Earthly pleasures. Even if I had, the Chantry doesn't prohibit two people from coming together out of love."

Shale's face was still and emotionless, as it always was, and that made it infuriatingly hard for Leliana to gauge her reaction. "I was told that the sister left the Maker behind to journey here."

"You never really leave the Maker." Leliana's voice was quiet. "Not in your heart."

"That seems like an argument for infidelity."

Leliana was taken aback by that. "You... are very catty for a walking statue, you know that?" She stammers out with a blush on her cheeks.

Zevran

"So?" Zevran asks.

"So what?" Mara raises an eyebrow.

"How is she?" Zevran smiles.

Mara scoffs. "I'm not going to tell you."

"Oh come on!" He laughs. "I've told you all about my _adventures_ , no?"

She chuckles. "In great detail no less. Unsolicited. And the answer remains no."

"Then I shall simply have to make up the details." Zevran gives her a sly smile. "Hmm..." He looks her over in details. "I'm going to say she tied you to the bed, no?"

Mara buries her head in her hand. "Oh god..."

"Aha!" He laughs. "I guess it."

She shakes her head. "Not by a long shot." She looks up at him. "And here I thought you Crows were supposed to be dangerous assassins with cold hearts, not hopeless romantics."

Zevran made a wounded sound and overacted mock offence. "Madame, you wound me!"

"I'm going to." She smiles, even thought she's still a little embarrassed. "I'll tell you what I tell everyone else: I love her. She makes me feel happy, safe, and _alive_. Any other details are up to your imagination." She met his eyes. "Which I expect shall keep you busy all night."

Oghren

"Hey, Warden." Oghren calls in the empty halls of Vigil's Keep.

She smiles. "Hey. You need something?"

"Was just wonderin' where your Bard scampered off to."

Mara chuckles. "We're not allowed to have separate lives now?"

"I just thought you two 'ould be joined at the hip forever."

"It _is_ hard to be away from my heart." She admits. "But she had pressing business to meet with the Divine."

"Bah." Oghren disregards. "You should've made her stay, keep her away from that political crap."

"She's not my _slave_." Mara laughs. "She's a grown woman, I can't just tell her what she can and can't do."

"Maybe you can't. I used to tell that to Branka all the time."

"Before she went crazy."

"I guess you do kinda have a point there." Oghren chuckles. "Well, I guess that we do the next best thing then."

Mara raises an eyebrow. "Oh? And what, pray tell, is that?"

"We drink in her honour!"

Loghain

"Why's the Orlesian here?"

"She has a name you know." Mara crosses her arms. "And she has more right to be here than you do."

"I have to check my food every night now that she's here." He complains.

"Too bad." Her voice is unsympathetic. "If it bothers you, you can either stop eating or stop being so damned paranoid."

He shakes his head. "I've seen the way she looks at you. You shouldn't trust her like that."

Mara sighs. "I love her, with all my heart. To hell with what nationality she is. And I hardly think you have the right to judge me for anything after what you've done."

"I've only ever done what was necessary. And you should never trust an Orlesian."

"For what?!" Her voice is angry now, fed up with his blind way of looking at the world. "The political actions of dead men that were committed before I was born? By that logic, I should hate every Ferelden because _you_ butchered the Wardens!"

"The war with Orlais was only a few decades ago." He insists. "You can still see what it's done to our contrymen."

" _Our_ nothing." Her voice is cold. She has the overwhelming urge to walk away right now, but stays. "I'm a Free Marcher, not Ferelden."

"Wait, really?" He raises an eyebrow, taken aback by that.

Mara nods. "I was born in Kirkwall."

"Why were you in the Ferelden Circle then?"

Mara scoffs. "Maybe if you spent less time worrying about crimes committed decades ago, you would know more about the injustices committed every day in the world around you." She shakes her head, exasperated. "For the record, Circles in the Free Marches typically don't keep mages in their home city unless their families are noble. They send them away so they don't keep in contact with the outside, so you either go to Starkhaven, Wycome, or off across the sea to Ferelden, never to see your family again."

She turns, and walks away, their conversation over, before turning back. "Maybe you should start living in the real world again, _Teyrn_."

Dog

Leliana begins to fidget again, absent mindedly playing with her hands. It had been three whole weeks since Mara had disappeared into the Deep Roads. Leliana had asked her to bring her along, but her lover refused. She had only taken Alistair and Shale, who couldn't be afflicted with the Blight sickness, and Oghren who was her only guide.

Her whole body begins to shake in worry and fear. _What if something had happened? What if they had run into the main horde down there? What if there was a cave-in? What if the Calling was stronger down there? Wha-_

Her thoughts were broken by Mara's sweet old dog, Duncan, who, sensing Leliana's internal agony, jumped in her lap and whimpered in comfort. He was worried too, in his own sweet little way.

"It'll be okay boy." She spoke softly while petting him, reassuring herself as much as him. "It's all going to be okay.

He gave a soft 'woof' of agreement.

Leliana

The nightmares of Marjoline come again, and Leliana awakens covered in a blanket of cold sweat and tears. It had been _that_ dream, that awful moment where her mentor betrayed her, and the soldiers dragged Leliana off kicking and screaming, crying out for Marjoline to save her.

"Leliana." She hears her new lover's soft voice, and she rolls over. Sure enough, Mara was there with her sad eyes and an arm wrapped comfortingly around her. "You dreamed of her again?" She nods silently, biting back tears. "Oh my poor sweet girl, come here..."

Mara hugs her so closely that Leliana thought something might break. "I'm so, so sorry, my love. I can't imagine how awful this must be."

"I'm fine-" Leliana begins, but Mara cuts her off with a loving kiss.

"Don't give me that. I love you, and your pain cuts through me too." She looks up at her Leliana who is fighting back the tears for her Warden. "It's alright, love. You can cry. I won't judge you at all."

Leliana gives in, and buries her head in Mara's shoulder, who cradles in her like a child. "It's alright." Her voice is soft, and soothing. "I'm here."

When her words end, the pain grows again when her heart is bereft of the Warden's sweet voice. "Don't stop talking." She sobs. "Please."

Mara is silent for a moment, thinking of what to say, and then she begins singing softly to the Bard. Happier songs, of a happier time. Soft lullabies that her mother had sang to her when she was sick, or hymns that the Circle had taught. She knew it didn't matter what she sang or said, just that she didn't stop.

They laid there for an hour before Leliana's tears couldn't come anymore, her eyes drying.

"I love you." Her voice is shaky, unsure of itself, of it's right to exist.

"I love you." There was no too added on to the end, because her love wasn't conditional. It wasn't an extension of Leliana's, but rather an expression of the fire in her heart for the Bard. "With all my heart and soul."

"I'm so sorry, you probably don't want to hear about my old lover." Leliana whispers quietly.

Mara shake her head. "I will have none of that, Leliana. I love you, and I long to hear your problems if only to offer you comfort, and to help you in whatever way I can." She kissed the Bard on the forehead as gently as she could. "I only hope that one day I will be as important to you as she was."

Leliana laughs wetly. "My angel, that day has already come and gone."

Mara's breath catches, and she kisses her Bard softly, with all the gentleness inside of her. "Whatever happens," Her voice is reverent. "I am with you to the end of the line."

Leliana cuddles closer, and her face breaks with a happy smile full of hope.

She never has nightmares of Marjoline again.


End file.
